Development, Implementation, and Assessment of an Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Engineering Health Equity Course

Introduction:: To ensure the successful and equitable implementation of health technologies, engineers must understand the both intended and unintended consequences of the technologies they design and implement as well as the contexts in which these are intended for use. However, curricula in in biomedical engineering are focused on fulfilling technical requirements at the expense of solving the needs of the particular individuals and communities impacted by their technical solutions (Jordan et al., 2021). Equity is commonly addressed separately under focusing on privacy, clinical bias, gender bias, race/ethnicity bias, access, and excluded identities and foster critical thinking, reflection, and gender/racial/cultural stratification (Abramoff et al., 2022; Farrell et al., 2021; Fong and Harris, 2015, McGee Banks and Banks, 1995). However, societal systems are interconnected across both these fields. In order to increase health equity, it is necessary to address the impacts of biomedical innovations as complex algorithms that address both the technical and the community needs (McDonald, 2000).

Interdisciplinary courses integrating biomedical engineering with equity-pedagogy, have the potential to create a learning environment that will support students to become reflective citizens that can help build a just society. We use a transdisciplinary framework to address social and structural determinants that influence health structures, systems, and technologies at an undergraduate level enabling an opportunity to explore complex global problems and the mechanisms in which biomedical technologies solutions can improve, or exacerbate, these (Velez et al.). This work describes the development and implementation, and assessment of an upper undergraduate elective on Engineering Health Equity course.



Materials and Methods:: The 3-credit BME 39500/HONR 39900 Engineering Health Equity undergraduate elective course was developed and co-taught by faculty in Biomedical Engineering, Public Health, and the Honors College. It was implemented for the first time in Spring 2023 at Purdue University, a large, Midwestern predominantly white institution (PWI). Eight (8) students enrolled in the course this first semester. Course topics and activities progressed through introduction to Health Equity, Barriers in Health Technologies, and applications in Women’s Health, Race and Ethnicity, and Mental Health (Figure 1). Each application module incorporated case studies and reverse engineering or prototyping of a relevant health technology such as spirometry, tampons, pulse oximeters, AI-based skin lesion detection, and wearable devices for autism spectrum disorder monitoring. Major assignments included developing a glossary of terms in each topic, an investigation into a specific country health system, and an infographic and final presentation on a student-chosen application considering the social determinants and potential for technology implementation to address or exacerbate health inequities in their chosen health system.

Eight undergraduate students, five from the Honors Program and three from Biomedical Engineering enrolled in the course. Students were 75% female and 25% male. The Global Learning Short Scale Plus (G.L.S2+) assessment, based on the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) global learning VALUE rubric (American Association of Colleges and Universities, 2022) was used for assessment. The instrument focuses on 6 areas: Global Self-Awareness, Perspective Taking, Cultural Diversity, Personal and Social Responsibility, Understanding Global Systems, and Applying Knowledge to Contemporary Global Context.


Results, Conclusions, and Discussions:: In the pre-test at the beginning of the course, Cultural Diversity and Personal and Social Responsibility were most cited by students and principle global learning factors. Qualitatively, Personal and Social Responsibility was a predominant factor influencing students’ beliefs. The post-test showed that students increased and prioritized their awareness Perspective Taking and Cultural Diversity following the class. The open-ended questions in the post-test showed that students valued Personal and Social Responsibility and Applying Knowledge to Contemporary Global Context. While the overall sample size was small, Global Self Awareness, Cultural Diversity, and Understanding of Global Systems demonstrated statistically significant increases in the post-test GLS2+ compared to the pre-test GLS2+ (Figure 2). Class content, volunteering opportunities, and the application of skills to address real-world problems were identified as experiences that foster global learning factors by students in their reflections.


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